Whether you are an amateur astronomer or a relative newbie to the thrills of stargazing, 2005 is shaping up to be an astronomical year for Southern Hemisphere sky watchers. Heather Catchpole captures a glimpse.

There's a whole bunch of ground-based observing possible both with the naked eye and a good pair of binoculars, and a veritable plethora of spacecraft out there sending back exciting science discoveries from the heavens. It's a great time to dust off the ol' refractor lens and step out into the night world of amateur astronomy for a feast of space treats.

March 10-18, 2005 - Explore the Universe with events and resources for teachers and students online at the StarFest website.

Mars attacks

Amateur astronomer Dr Ian Musgrave from the University of Adelaide, who keeps a regular check on the southern stars at his Southern Sky Watch website touts this year's most exciting event as the opposition of Mars on November 7, with Mars and the Sun diametrically opposite according to their positions as visible from Earth, which coincides with Mars' closest approach to Earth. Although not as close as 2003's record-breaking approach, Mars will still look very bright, said Musgrave.

"People with good telescopes or access to observatory telescopes should see Mars in good detail, including such features as the polar ice caps, equatorial dark regions and the occasional dust storm," he said.

Amateur space enthusiast and high school science teacher Paul Floyd said it would make a huge difference to small telescope and binocular viewers.

"You can understand why ancient people believed the planets were gods when they got brighter and bigger like this," he said.

Jupiter will also be in opposition April 4 and although the increase in brightness will be hard to see with the naked eye "it will look splendid in a small telescope", Musgrave said.

A trip to the occult

But first up this year is the second in the series of occultations of Jupiter, and no, there is nothing astrological about this. An occultation is simply what happens when one celestial body obscures another. In this case, mighty Jupiter slips behind the Moon. For the southwest Western Australians, anyone west of Merredin and south of Geraldton will see the Moon cover Jupiter at about 10.10pm AWST on March 26.

Although Jupiter can easily be seen with the naked eye, grab a pair of binoculars or a small telescope to really appreciate the beauty of this event.

Floyd said the dramatic view of the occultation gives a sense of the scale of the solar system.

"Jupiter looks like a star next to the Moon but it is hundreds of millions of kilometres away and you could fit many thousands of Moons inside."

Check out Jupiter with a pair of binoculars or a telescope to appreciate the occultation. Image: NASA

Later in the year there will be a rare occultation of the seven-starred constellation the Pleiades. The Pleiades look like a small saucepan (only six of the stars are visible, the seventh, Merope, is dim).

The Pleiades occultation is happening twice this year, in Perth on September 22 at 11.56pm, Darwin on September 23 at 12.34am, and 12.20am the same night in Adelaide, and Eastern state cities. Eastern and central Australia can see it again in November at about 20:10 AEST (eastern states), 20:33 ACST (central States).

Reddish Antares, (its name deriving from anti-Ares, i.e., anti-Mars) is the brightest star in the large constellation of Scorpio, and will also have its occult experience at 11.38pm ACST August 14, visible only from the northern part of Australia.

For the lunatics

There will be a couple of lunar eclipses, starting with a partial penumbral eclipse of the Moon at 7.54pm on April 24, visible from all of Australia and New Zealand. The best view is from the eastern states as elsewhere the darkening of the northern half of the Moon may be too subtle to see, occurring as it does at twilight. Never fear, there's another on October 17, visible from all of Australia at 10.03pm AEST (9.33pm ACST, 8.03pm AWST).

Musgrave says the October one especially will look very nice, with lunar-tics able to observe the Earth's shadow as it passes across the south pole of the Moon.

Not to be outdone the Sun will also appear partially eclipsed, but visible only from New Zealand and other parts of the South Pacific, at sunrise on April 8. Australian eclipse chasers will have to wait until the next one can be seen from north Queensland in 2012, or follow the path of the middle-eastern totality expected at the end of March 2006.

Meteors

Keep an eye out for the Eta Aquarids meteor shower on May 5 from about 3.30 to 5.30am AEST, visible from the whole of Australia. Rural and outback observers with dark skies can see about a meteor every 2 minutes, suburban and urban viewers will see far fewer.

Outer space events

Up in the realm of the gods, it will be another exciting year, with the rovers Spirit and Opportunity continuing to transmit data from the surface of Mars. Further out in our solar system, the Cassini spacecraft is now orbiting Saturn and will continue to transmit information for some time. More spacecraft destined for fly-bys and orbits of Mercury, Venus and Mars are already on their way or soon will be.

An artist's rendition of the impactor from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft on a collision course with the comet Tempel 1.
Image: Pat Rawlings/NASA

Outside the planets, spacecraft will this year attempt to meet up with a comet and an asteroid, with Floyd and Musgrave both voting the one likely to cause the biggest buzz the NASA spacecraft Deep Impact, scheduled for a crunching rendezvous with the comet Tempel 1 in July.

The mission involves a fly-by spacecraft releasing a smaller impacting spacecraft on July 7 (U.S. time), aiming to hit the comet 24 hours later. The impacting spacecraft will hurl itself full tilt into the comet in order to study how impact craters form and reveal what the insides of comets are made of. Its constituents will be valuable clues to what the early solar system was like.

Deep Impact would be an exciting space event, said Floyd.

"The comet would be moving faster than the impacting spacecraft so it's more of a rollover," he said.

Although the comet itself is not visible to the naked eye, it should be visible in dark skies with good binoculars and small telescopes will definitely catch it, Musgrave said. But whether Southern Hemisphere viewers would be able to see the small flare expected as the spacecraft hits the comet depends on timing, it may happen too early for people to see it, he added.

Sky of diamonds

The Moon - just in case you've missed all of the other great astronomical events in March.
Image: NASA

If you can't make it outside to view any of the exciting astronomical events, make sure you do step outside somewhere at night in 2005. The Moon always provides good binocular and telescope viewing, with craters and their rims to explore and you can easily spot Mars and Venus with a naked eye.

Even city dwellers of the Southern Hemisphere can marvel at our galaxy with the Milky Way stretched across the sky like a giant star banner. Those out in the bush should also be able to see the dwarf galaxies known as Magellan's clouds, beside the Milky Way. Keep your eye out also for the dark patch of sky known as Coal Sack, or as the Emu in some Aboriginal groups, that appears just below the Southern Cross.

Orion and Scorpio continue their celestial chase across the sky, with Orion dipping down below the horizon to allow Scorpio's long, curving body to dominate over winter. Orion is still high in the northern sky but starting to drop and Scorpio should appear in mid April, rising in the early evening and almost straight overhead at midnight in May.

The Southern Cross remains in the sky throughout the year, except in the far north of Australia.

Other clearly recognisable stars are the Pleiades, Sirius, the brightest star in the southern sky, Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus, the bull and red Betelgeuse in Orion.

For more information on Southern stargazing go to:

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